Modern hearing assistance devices, such as hearing aids, are electronic instruments worn in or around the ear that compensate for hearing losses by specially amplifying sound. Some hearing aids include an antenna for radio frequency communications. Wearers of hearing aids can experience problems with antenna communication. Examples include, but are not limited to, unwanted coupling between the antenna and other hearing aid components which causes artifacts, noise and interference. To limit this unwanted coupling, previous methods have included shielding or moving components farther away from the antenna to reduce unwanted coupling and reducing the physical aperture of the antenna for harmonic response and impedance improvements. However, adding shielding increases the part-count, adds assembly complexity, can degrade wireless performance and may increase the size of the hearing aid. Likewise, moving components farther away from the antenna increases the minimum size of the hearing aid. In addition, reducing the antenna physical aperture size usually reduces radiation efficiency and degrades performance.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for improved systems and methods for improving antenna performance for hearing assistance devices.